It's Andy Fish!

As a kid we didn’t have a color TV until past about 1973– and up to that time my world existed in Black and White. Batman’s TV Cowl was black– easy as it could ever be, right?

Well the first time I saw the show on a friend’s family’s COLOR TV I was knocked off my feet by the vibrant colors of the show– and Batman’s Cowl was Purple! Wow it was like the parting of the Red Sea.

Later on as the years went by I happened upon some vintage photos of some outdoor filming of the show and away from the studio lights the Cowl as actually more of a navy blue!

Like the Mad Hatter I had to own Batman’s headpiece, and there was back in the mid to late 80s no shortage of craftsman willing to make a reproduction for you.

The first and for me the “best” of the reproduction cowls (and I’ll explain why that’s qualified) was the one my old pal Wally Wingert made. It had charming flaws like the head being slightly too round and the white markings being a little more prominent that the actual ones worn by Adam West on the show, but it hit all the points that looked right in my head and sure enough it was purple.

Now I wasn’t totally wrong about Batman’s cowl being purple;

As the Cowl’s aged under those hot lights with poor Adam sweating like crazy in it– the fabric started to pull away and the color faded to a purple. Above is one of the two actual surviving original Batman cowls from the show that have not been recovered with clean fabric.

Move ahead a few years and Chuck and Lynne Williams of Williams Studio2 crafted what is hands down the most authentic Cowl on the market, created using precise measurements, a shell made from an authentic one and an attention to detail unmatched their final product is a work of art. Over the years I’ve owned 4-5 of them, because when people would see them they would offer to buy them and I would oblige and simply order another one. Surprisingly I was talking to Chuck and I don’t hold the record for most cowls purchased, I’d love to know who that crackpot is.

IN talking to Chuck I explained to him while I loved his work, the perfect cowl still looked off to me because in my mind the cowl markings are white (they are not they are blue) and thicker than what they actually were– and the fabric was purple not blue.

Well leave it to Chuck to reach out to me when he was able to dye or find some purple fabric that would do the job, and he did the heavier markings for me in white– so I own a completely one of a kind version of Chuck’s amazing cowl (that’s it in the first photo above– you can see a glimpse of his normal blue cowl next to it).